Asked by: Ben Obese-Jecty (Conservative - Huntingdon)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the Urgent Question HMP Leyhill: Offender Abscondments, how many of the 57 prisoner abscondments that occurred in 2025 remained at large as of 1 January 2026.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
There were 57 absconds in the year ending March 2025. Data on absconds is published annually in the HMPPS Annual Digest: HMPPS Annual Digest 2024 to 2025 - GOV.UK. This only includes a 30-day reference point for whether prisoners remained at large. Data for April 2025 to March 2026 will be published in July 2026 as part of the next HMPPS Annual Digest.
Public protection is our top priority. When a prisoner absconds, police are immediately notified and are responsible for locating the offender. The majority of absconders are quickly recaptured and returned to custody.
Those who abscond face serious consequences, including being returned to closed prison conditions where they may serve up to two additional years on conviction. Prisoners subject to parole decisions will likely face longer before they are released.
Asked by: Ben Obese-Jecty (Conservative - Huntingdon)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many emergency visa extensions has his department applied for HMPPS staff since 1 November 2025.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
The requested data is not held centrally in a reportable format.
Asked by: Ben Obese-Jecty (Conservative - Huntingdon)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what information he holds on the number of British-qualified judges sit on the Court of Final Appeal in Hong Kong.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal publishes the names of its non-permanent judges on its website.
The list is available at https://www.hkcfa.hk/en/about/who/judges/npjs/index.html.
Asked by: Ben Obese-Jecty (Conservative - Huntingdon)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many staff within the HM Prison & Probation Service reliant on visas for employment have been employed since 5 July 2024.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
The Ministry of Justice does not hold the requested information requested data in an easily accessible format. Right to Work data is collected during the vetting stage but is not retained within the employment record. As a result, extracting this information would require a manual review of individual vetting files, which would incur a disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Ben Obese-Jecty (Conservative - Huntingdon)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what is the full scope of the five point action plan to tackle release inaccuracy announced by him on 11 November 2025.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
Releases in error are never acceptable, and we are bearing down on those errors that do occur.
Releases in error have always existed, and are another long-term symptom of the prison system crisis this Government inherited. While the overwhelming majority of offenders are released correctly, we are taking decisive action to address this issue to reduce the risk of future mistakes.
On 11 November, the Deputy Prime Minister announced a five-point action plan. This includes:
Asked by: Ben Obese-Jecty (Conservative - Huntingdon)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many prison places have been delivered through the Small Secure Houseblocks programme since 5 July 2024; and at which locations.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
No places have yet been delivered under the Small Secure Houseblocks (SSH) programme. Following completion of the design stage, the programme is now in its main construction phase. Based on current plans, the Small Secure Houseblocks programme will deliver c.1,000 new Category C places and supporting ancillaries across the estate.
The Government committed to delivering 14,000 additional prison places in the December 2024 10-Year Prison Capacity Strategy. We are on track to deliver these by 2031, having delivered c.2,600 since taking office.
Asked by: Ben Obese-Jecty (Conservative - Huntingdon)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the answer of 18th November 2025 to question 88988 on Prisoners, a) how long for and b) how much compensation did each prisoner unlawfully detained between 5th July 2024 and 31st March 2025 receive.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
Release inaccuracy is yet another symptom of the prison system crisis inherited by this Government. While the overwhelming majority of offenders are released correctly, we are clamping down on those errors that do occur, and this includes unlawful detentions.
On 11 November, the Deputy Prime Minister announced a five-point action plan setting out initial steps which includes strengthening release checks across prisons and an independent inquiry will report its recommendations to prevent further inaccuracies. The Government is determined to fix release inaccuracies and ensure the public is properly protected.
The data requested comes from internal management information and is not fully Quality Assured. We are therefore unable to answer this question within cost limits.
Asked by: Ben Obese-Jecty (Conservative - Huntingdon)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the answer of 18 November 2025 to question 88988 on Prisoners, how many of the prisoners unlawfully detained following completion of their sentence in 2024-25 were detained between 5 July 2024 and 31 March 2025.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
Release inaccuracy is yet another symptom of the prison system crisis inherited by this Government. While the overwhelming majority of offenders are released correctly, we are clamping down on those errors that do occur, and this includes unlawful detentions.
On 11 November, the Deputy Prime Minister announced a five-point action plan setting out initial steps which includes strengthening release checks across prisons and an independent inquiry will report its recommendations to prevent further inaccuracies. The Government is determined to fix release inaccuracies and ensure the public is properly protected.
The data requested comes from internal management information and is not fully Quality Assured. We are therefore unable to answer this question within cost limits.
Asked by: Ben Obese-Jecty (Conservative - Huntingdon)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many staff within the HM Prison & Probation Service are reliant on a visa for their employment.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
The Ministry of Justice does not hold the requested data in an easily accessible format. Information on right to work status does not provide a distinction between employees presently working for the Ministry of Justice and employees who have since left employment, therefore distinguishing the data accurately would incur disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Ben Obese-Jecty (Conservative - Huntingdon)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what progress has she made in replacing the key supplier for the 10K Additional Prison Places Estate Expansion Houseblocks and Refurbishment programme.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave on 11 November 2025 to Question 87997.